Dammit -- I wish I could celebrate this

[theHandpuppet]

I'm always complaining about the lack of investment in Appalachia, particularly in the areas of education and job training. So the announcement that Chevron will invest 20 million in the Appalachian Partnership Initiative and that they've declared an interest in developing a "philanthropic presence", it should be cause for celebration, right? Yet, as you read along, you'll discover this is not so much a philanthropic gesture as a training program for the workers they will need to run their fracking operations in the Marcellus Shale region. Plus they get a big fat tax break for doing this!

I swear....

Chevron makes $20 million investment to improve job training in region
October 22, 2014 12:00 AM
By Joyce Gannon / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After Chevron Corp. spent $3.7 billion to buy Atlas Energy’s assets and gas reserves near Pittsburgh in 2011, the California company began contemplating how to establish a philanthropic presence in the region where it was poised to become a major player in the Marcellus Shale boom.

So officials from Chevron contacted the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, a long-established Pittsburgh-based charitable fund built on the fortunes of oil wildcatter Michael Benedum.

Chevron considered its connection with the nonprofit to be not so much the fact that both had a long history in the oil and gas industry, said Jim Denova, the foundation’s vice president, but that the Benedum Foundation’s grant-making focuses largely on education and workforce training in areas where Chevron would soon be doing business: southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia...

...On Tuesday, they formalized their efforts with Chevron’s announcement that it will invest $20 million over the next four years in the Appalachia Partnership Initiative. The initiative will focus on boosting STEM efforts and technical training in 27 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio, with the goal of better preparing students to work in the region’s energy and manufacturing sectors....

MORE at http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/10/22/Chevron-makes-20-million-investment-to-improve-job-training-in-region/stories/201410220065